


We'll Make It Through

by Gingerwerk



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 05:59:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5573437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gingerwerk/pseuds/Gingerwerk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David's not sure how he'll make it past today. Joe thinks he's an idiot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We'll Make It Through

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr prompt written for anonymous :)

* * *

The hotel room was quickly darkening as the sun set in the distance. Neither of the men who currently occupied the room could even find the energy to think about perhaps turning on a light. There were bigger issues on their mind.

 

“I knew this wasn’t a fucking good idea,” Joe growled while he paced in front of Webster, who sat hunched over on the edge of their hotel room bed. “It was a fucking waste to come all the way out here just for their bullshit.”

 

Webster didn’t respond. He didn’t move. He kept his face downturned, elbows rested on top of his knees, while his hands propped up his head. He had been numb for the past hour or so, ever since he visited his parents at their house and was promptly kicked out while they screamed and pushed him. He had been numb but now he was beginning to thaw. His body felt tired, so tired, his heart pounded painfully against his chest, and he felt that awful, constricted feeling in his throat that came only when he was about to cry. Personally, he was surprised that it had taken him this long for the tears to come; he had expected it more around the time his father called him a ‘faggot’ and his mother started to cry but Webster supposed he had been too angry then to cry. Now the anger was gone and all he was left feeling was empty.

 

The tears started to roll down David’s face as Liebgott continued on his tirade while he paced around the hotel room like an angry, caged animal.

 

“I mean what did you expect though, Web?” Joe asked him angrily as he paused in front of Webster’s hunched over figure. Webster didn’t flinch as Joe turned on him; he was used to being yelled at. “Did you _honestly_ expect them to open up their arms and start pulling out rainbow flags? Where the fuck have you been for the last few years? I mean there was a reason you kept this shit secret for so long. You should have known.”

 

Sure, deep inside David’s mind, he knew. He knew how truly awful his parents were for a very long time. But in his heart, in his heart he hoped, begged that his brain was wrong, that his parents were loving, accepting, that they actually loved him.

 

He wanted the lies to end though, he was sick of it. He was sick of them asking when he was gonna come back to New York, when he was going to stop fooling around in California, stop “wasting time”, when he was gonna settle down, if he was seeing anyone, did he want them to give him the number of a family friend’s daughter who was studying at Berkley, UCLA, Stanford… he wanted it all to end.

 

“And fuck, they hated me when they thought that I was just your friend,” Joe continued. “There was no way in hell that they would have accepted us even if they weren’t such pieces of shit. I don’t get why you were so hell bent on doing this shit, Web. Don’t you know how expensive those fucking plane tickets were? And a hotel in New York. Shit is expensive. It would have been cheaper to get that sort of rejection over the phone.”

 

Webster didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer. It felt like there was an invisible hand wrapped around his throat while he cried silently, making it difficult to breathe, let alone speak.

 

“Are you even listening to me, Web?” Joe asked, irritated.

 

David opened his mouth in an attempt to speak but the only thing that came out was a large, shaky sob. Any wall he had managed to build up to keep him going today crumbled within an instant. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes while his shoulders shook and he gasped for air.

 

“Hey…,” Joe said after a pause, his voice suddenly much softer, unsure. “Hey…Web… I didn’t… _fuck_.”

 

Why _did_ Webster want to come here so badly? Why was he so determined to fly across the country back to New York to see his parents and tell them what he was, who he and Joe were? Why did he feel the need tell them to their face, especially since he already knew how they would respond? Joe was right, he could have done this over the phone. Then he wouldn’t have had to see the disgust in his father’s face, the pain in his mother’s eyes, wouldn’t have to duck when his father began throwing things.

 

“David.”

 

Suddenly Webster felt a hand grip his knee. Webster moved his hands away from his eyes and found through his blurry vision that now Joe kneeled in front of him, brown eyes now devoid of anger and instead filled with sorrow and regret.

 

“I’m sorry, Dave,” Joe said quietly. “I don’t want to yell at you. I shouldn’t be yelling at you. I should be yelling at your piece of shit parents for making you feel like this in the first place. I wanna go drive to their place right now and let them know what’s what. It’s probably a good thing you went on your own today. If I went with you, I’d probably be stuck in some dirty jail cell right now.”

 

David was glad that he managed to convince Joe to let him do today by himself. He didn’t need Joe in a holding cell facing charges, he needed him here with him right now. It was the only way he was going to make it through this.

 

Webster reached down and placed his hand on top of the one that rested on his knee. Joe rearranged their hands so that their fingers laced together and then rested it back on top of Webster’s shaking knee.

 

“Hey,” Joe said as he gripped Webster’s chin with his other hand and tilted it so that his eyes met Joe’s, “fuck them. Who needs them?”

 

“T-they’re gonna cut me of-off,” Webster managed to choke out; he felt ridiculous, that the first words out of his mouth in an hour were about finances but it was the truth. Even though his relationship with his parents had been tense ever since he ran off to California a few years ago they still continued to pay for his major expenses: his apartment, his car insurance, his cell phone bill. He had a decent paying job but it wasn’t enough to keep up the lifestyle his parents managed to provide for him. “What a-am I gonna do, Joe?”

 

“I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do,” Joe responded after a moment. “You’re gonna get rid of your overpriced place and you’re gonna move in with me.”

 

“What?” Webster stuttered.

 

“Yeah. You’re gonna move in with me,” Joe repeated, voice steady, eyes serious.

 

“Joe I can’t-”

 

“You can and you will. Come on, Tipper and Buck won’t mind. You usually spend half the week there anyhow. Hell, I bet they’ll be glad to have you around more, you’re the only one who tries to keep that place livable,” Joe added with a hint of a smile. “There. One problem down. What’s next?”

 

“My car-”

 

“That ridiculous thing that you drive like, once a month?” Joe asked. “Sell it. Bye-bye insurance payments.”

 

It was true. Between the easy public transportation routes to work and Joe’s car, he rarely drove his own car. David doubted that he would even notice the car was gone when he got rid of it.

 

“And I’ve seen what you make. I’m sure you can hold down a cell phone plan and a utility payment with what you make at the aquarium. So like I said, who needs them?”

 

Joe had a point. It would take some adjusting, some downsizing, but Webster would be able to survive without his parents’ financial crutch. Unfortunately, finances weren’t the only problem in the equation.

 

“But what am I going to do?” Webster repeated quietly, his voice shaking. “They’re my family.”

 

“No they’re not,” Joe said with a shake of his head as he moved his hand from David’s chin to the side of his face. “Families fight but they don’t kick out their own onto the streets.”

 

“So I don’t have any family now,” David sniffed while he wiped at his wet face. “Great.”

 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Joe asked, earning a confused look from Webster. “ _I’m_ your family, Web. Families take care of each other and I’m gonna take care of you.”

 

“Joe.”

 

“I know you’ve tried before but you ain’t getting rid of me. You’re stuck with me,” Joe stated while he wiped away a falling tear with his thumb. “Got it?”

 

“Yeah, Joe,” Webster nodded. “I got it.”

 

Joe tilted his head upwards and kissed David. It lacked the usually force and passion that their usual kisses contained but there was warmth and love and a faint hopeful feeling that things were going to be okay.

 

“Good. Now stop crying.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
